Author's note: I'm sorry for the long wait. I live in Buffalo, and if you've been watching the news, we've been having some storm trouble, so I haven't been able to update. To make up for it, I'm putting up two chapters today, and hopefully I'll be able to get back onto the chapter-per-day schedule I was working on at the beginning. Thanks for understanding. 

Chapter 18: Waldorf Worldwide

"So, why are we here again, Izzy?" Davis asked.

"Because I've got a job for you to do. It's very important, so I need you to take it seriously, alright?" Izzy responded as he pulled something up on the computer. "This is the web page that I've created for our mission. Here is where we'll log information on the digidestined and organize them for fighting Myotismon's army. Hopefully it will become an expansive online community by which all the digidestined can communicate with each other."

"So what did you need us for?" I asked as I looked at the site.

"Basically Veemon, you two are going to be running the web site. It won't be hard. You just need to update the news page when we give you new information, and moderate the forum that we're starting up. I'll do all the organizing of information and make any modifications that the site needs," Izzy explained.

"Why do we get stuck with the boring job?" Davis asked. "Why can't we go to the digital world? Kari's got to be tired by now."

"They've only been there for four days, and they've said that they're fine. Besides, we need someone to manage the basic stuff on the site, and we all decided that you'd be perfect for the job!" Izzy laughed a little bit before handing him a sheet of paper. "Here's your password and username so that you can access the controls for the site. Remember, your only jobs are moderating the forum I've set up and updating the news. I'll fix anything else if there's a problem."

"Can I change my screen name?" Davis asked.

"Why would you want to?" I tried to jump up to see the paper.

"Because it's Waldorf," Davis said.

"Oh, yeah, Tai thought that would be perfect for you, Davis," Izzy said. "Now come on, we've got to meet everyone at the school in ten minutes. If you've got any questions about the site, email me later," Izzy said as he shut down the computer and grabbed his bag.

We had to practically run in order to make it to the school on time. We were the last ones to arrive in the computer lab, as usual, but Izzy was mad that we'd held him up and made him late too.

"Jeez, what took you Izzy?" Joe asked.

"These two did," Izzy said, indication Davis and me.

"Alright, well maybe you can explain what happened to Joe," Matt said. "It's really wacky."

"I'll give it a shot, what happened?" Izzy asked.

"Well, I was driving to the store, and I suddenly began to glow, then I was dragged into the digital world. Kari and Will were on a raft in the middle of a storm, and were being attacked by Megaseadramon. We were going to flee, but then Ikkakumon digivolved to Zudomon! It was really weird," Joe quickly explained.

"He digivolve to ultimate? Hat's impossible without the crests," Izzy said.

"That's what we thought too, but I did," Gomamon said.

"That's a really weird story," Izzy thought for a few seconds. "I really have no idea. Perhaps we should talk to Jennai about it," he suggested.

"Well don't think too long on it. We've got more important things to worry about right now," Tai said.

"Yeah, like how we're going to find all these other digidestined," Sora said. "It's not like there's a phone book of them."

"I'd pretty much say we're trying to make the phone book," TK said. Suddenly there was a knock at the door. Everyone was still.

"Who is it?" Izzy asked.

"It's Mimi, who did you think?" Came the voice from the other side of the door. Matt walked over and opened it. Mimi walked in with a big smile on her face.

"Hi everyone! It's so nice to see you all again." Mimi smiled. A loud jumble of hellos followed.

"Alright, so someone fill me in on what we're up to," Mimi said as she sat down.

"Well, Kari and Will are in the digital world closing portals to the real world with Will's crest. The rest of us are trying to prepare for the inevitable failure of this strategy over the course of the next few weeks by gathering as many digidestined as we can for our cause," Izzy explained.

"Oh, I should call Michael. He can get the rest of his group to come help too, I bet," Mimi said excitedly.

"That's a start, but we'll need a lot more if we're . . . hold on I've got some mail from Will," Izzy said as he looked at the screen.

Hi Izzy, it's Will. You want to know something weird? I never understood why ancient peoples thought that women would slow down armies until now.

"Well that was about as clear as mud," Izzy said.

"Is he complaining that Kari is slowing him down?" Tai asked.

"Hey, I've got mail from Kari!" Yolei said suddenly. She read the message quickly to herself, and then burst into a fit of laughter.

"What is it Yolei?" Cody asked.

"Nothing Cody. Don't worry about it," Yolei said as she pulled Sora and Mimi over to look at the email. They both laughed at whatever it said.

"Hey, mind clueing the rest of us in? What's so funny?" Matt insisted.

"It really isn't that big of a problem, Matt," Sora said. "We'll handle it, don't worry."

"I'll be right back," Yolei said as she ran out of the room. The rest of us just looked at each other, still not knowing what was so funny.

"Alright, let's just forget about it and get back on topic," Joe said.

"Good idea," Izzy agreed. "Now, this is going to come down to us basically spamming internet chat boards with information about digivices. Hopefully anyone who has a digivice will use the links to go to our web page and sign up. It's going to be impossible to keep this a secret, but we really have no other choice. Without the ability to reach ultimate level, our digimon can't compete with Myotismon, and we need to gather as many digimon as possible."

"Wait a second Izzy, remember Gomamon?" Joe said.

"We can't rely on something we don't understand like that. As soon as we're done here, I'm going to send an email to Jennai and ask him about it. In the meantime this is our only strategy," Izzy replied.

"Alright Izzy, you just email us what we need to put up and we'll start spamming away!" Tai said enthusiastically.

Unfortunately, the spam idea didn't work very well. After two days we had hardly managed to gather anybody. Mimi came through on her promise to recruit Michael and his friends, but other than him and the three he signed up with him (Will was a fifth member of their group and the sixth member hadn't signed up) we had about three kids. It was a bad start, to say the least.

"What's up Izzy?" Davis asked as him and I walked into his room with two backpacks full of supplies.

"Unfortunately nothing. We've hardly got any members, and it doesn't look likely that we'll get more any time soon," Izzy said sadly. "Anyways, did you two bring the supplies?"

"Of course we did!" Davis said. "So when do we leave?"

"Right now, they're waiting for you just on the other side of the portal, and then they're heading to another portal to close it. Any time you're ready to go, go," Izzy said.

"Alright, let's go, Veemon," Davis said.

"I'm right behind ya, Davis!" I replied as he opened the portal. We both jumped through. Davis always complains that being downloaded feels funny, but it really doesn't. Maybe it's different because I'm made of data instead of DNA or whatever they call it.

"What took you so long?" Gatomon asked as soon as we got there. "We've been waiting."

"We were talking to Izzy," Davis said. "Here's the stuff," he said as he handed Kari the backpack.

"Thanks Davis," she said. I gave mine to Will, who handed me the empty one he had been lugging around.

"Hey, do you guys mind if we follow you to the next portal, just to catch up," Davis said.

"Knock yourself out, as long as Izzy doesn't need you," Will said.

"Alright, which way is it?" Davis asked.

"This way," Will said as he started down the path through the forest.

"Why does it seem like we're always in a forest, a desert, or the ocean?" I pondered.

"Probably because that makes up most of the digital world, silly," Gatomon responded.

"There's more than that here," Kari said. "We've been in mountains and caves and cities here too."

"There are cities here?" Drakamon asked. "We never went to any cities."

"There are a few, mostly machine digimon live in them," Kari said.

"Hey, just how far away is this portal?" Davis asked.

"Not far, maybe five minutes if we keep this pace," Will said.

Gatomon started looking around in the trees. Kari looked at her. "Is something wrong, Gatomon?"

"No, I just thought I heard . . . Look out!" And she tackled Kari to the ground as a sword flew past us. A digimon appeared out of the trees, brandishing several swords. It was about seven feet tall with a metal, very human-like body, but smooth all over and flexible. It had eight sheaths strapped to its back, four facing each direction. All held swords, and he held four more in his two hands, gripping two in each hand so that the blades faced in opposite directions.

"That's Megaswordmon," Drakamon said, "He's a mega level that uses his Multi-Sword and Blade Rain attacks to slice enemies to pieces. I bet he's one of Myotismon's servants."
"You couldn't be more right," a voice boomed from behind the monster. Myotismon stepped out of the trees, guarded by another Megaswordmon. "Now, will you all just give up, or will I have to do this the hard way."

"Davis, I think now would be a great time to RUN!" I yelled. We all took off, heading for the portal. The Megaswordmon were right on our tail.

"What are we gonna do? We can't just lead them right to the portal!" Kari said.

"I know, I'm thinking," Will said.

"They're gaining on us!" I called out.

"Alright, everyone go through the portal," Will said. "When we get to the other side, we'll just smash the computer and he won't be able to follow us." Drakamon gave him a worried look.

"Are you sure that's gonna work?" I asked him.

"Absolutely, now hurry up!" Will called. We broke out of the forest into a large open field. Off in the distance we could see the portal, growing slowly closer.

"Kari, Davis, go through and get ready to smash the computer as soon as I get through," Will said as he dropped back from us a bit. The Megaswordmon had almost caught up.

"Alright, hurry up," Kari replied as she and Gatomon passed through the portal.

"Veemon, you get ready to smash that thing," Davis said as he pushed me forward into the portal. He followed right away. We appeared in Izzy's room and I scrambled to my feet, ready to blast the computer.

"What's going on?" Izzy demanded.

"Sorry Izzy, but your computer's about to be blasted," Davis said. I lowered my head, ready to attack as soon as they got through. The only problem is that they never came through.

"Where, are they?" Kari said after about thirty seconds had passed.

"Would you please explain what's going on to me?" Izzy said, rather annoyed.

"We were being chased by Myotismon, and Will said that we'd escape through the portal and then smash the computer so that they couldn't go through it," Davis explained.

"But, that wouldn't work. The portal would just be re-routed to another computer," Izzy said. Then he suddenly got a knowing look on his face. "Oh no."

"What is it Izzy?" Gatomon asked.

"I don't think Will ever intended to go through the portal. I think he told you guys to smash the computer just so that you'd go through, and then he closed it," Izzy explained. There was a stunned silence as he looked at the screen. "Yeah, it's closed from that side. He knew that smashing the computer wouldn't work; he made that up so that you guys wouldn't try to stay with him."

"He . . . did?" Kari was getting a sick look on her face. "Does that mean . . . he's . . .?"

"I, I don't know," Izzy said, slumping down in the chair.

"We've gotta go back for him!" Davis yelled.

"That's the last thing we should do. By now Myotismon's already caught him, and we'd only be putting ourselves in danger," Izzy said.

Kari was leaning on the desk because she was losing her balance. Gatomon jumped up on the desk and put a paw on her back to calm her down.

"There's gotta be something we can do!" Davis yelled.

"Here," Izzy said, handing him a cell phone. "Call Yolei, Ken, Cody, Matt, and TK. I'll call everyone else on my home phone. We need to have an emergency meeting."

Davis snatched up the phone and hurriedly dialed. We all feared the worst, and had good reason to. The only chance was if Drakamon managed to digivolve to Skullhydramon and fly away, but that would only escape the Megaswordmon, Myotismon could fly. I looked over at Kari, who was now sitting on the floor, sobbing, with all the color drained from her face. "They're dead, Gatomon. They're dead . . ."